“No, Dad, I want to sing and dance”: ‘Queer’ Star Drew Starkey’s Troy Bolton in High School Musical-like Epiphany Kicked Off His Hollywood Career
- Drew Starkey is emerging as a Hollywood star, thanks to his role in Queer.
- He opened up about his Troy Bolton-esque epiphany that led him to become an actor.
- The Outer Banks actor stated that he like to keep his distance from social media.
Drew Starkey is emerging as a true Hollywood star with his role as the gay young man, Eugene Allerton in Luca Guadagnino’s period romance drama, Queer. Before this, he was most widely known for his role as Rafe Cameron in Netflix’s adventure drama series, Outer Banks.
Starkey did not grow up wanting to be an actor like some actors do. In fact, he was interested in something very different before he realized that he wanted to do what it took to become an actor. He has opened up about it in an interview and his arc is very alike High School Musical‘s Troy Bolton.
Drew Starkey Likened His Life Trajectory to High School Musical‘s Troy Bolton
Born and brought up in North Carolina, Drew Starkey grew up playing sports like basketball and baseball. His father is a college basketball coach for the Kent State women’s team so it barely comes as a surprise that the actor was also athletic as a young boy. That said, he also learned to play the piano and guitar.
Starkey was in his freshman year of high school when he joined a drama class and realized that he wanted to pursue acting as a career. In a recent interview with Dazed magazine, he reflected on this, saying:
Yeah, I got a little bit of Troy Bolton in me. It’s like, you know, basketball was my first love. And then I was like, ‘No, Dad, I want to sing and dance, you know, I’m meant to be an actor.’
He explained his point of view, saying:
Sometimes you can hit a flow where it feels like this is what I’m meant to be doing, and it’s second nature. It’s unconscious in some way. And l feel like that happens, at least for me, very rarely, and striving for that is I think what makes it so addictive.
For those uninitiated, Troy Bolton, portrayed by actor Zac Efron, is a character in the High School Musical film series. Troy’s father was a basketball player so he feels a sense of responsibility to continue the tradition. He sang karaoke once and realized that he would like to do it again. So, the idea of auditioning for the school musical is exciting to him although he is hesitant about it. Ultimately, he ends up joining the musical.
Drew Starkey Prefers to Keep His Private Life Off Social Media
Social media can be a dark place to be sometimes. There are pros and cons to everything, but lately, social media is turning out to be more and more unpredictable. So, most celebrities choose to stay off it just to keep their private lives to themselves. Celebrities like Harry Styles and Tom Holland have withdrawn from social media in recent years to keep the noise out.
Drew Starkey is also one of those celebrities who only posts on social media to promote his projects, and he explained his reasoning during the interview.
You can say anything you want online under the guise of any identity. Even the positive stuff, I don’t know what’s true or not. Because it’s like, would these people say these things to my face? I feel like if I’m on the internet all day it can become delusional, and I don’t want to lose my mind.
The Love, Simon actor seems to know what he wants and believes that he might not have been able to handle things in the same way if he was younger.
